1987 T&C Column Shifter Difficulties

Hello again, all. I have a slight problem that I cannot seem to
recall having to fix on any other car before. When I park on a slight
incline of any sort, when it comes time for me to leave and to shift
from Park into Reverse, well it's almost impossible!

I pull the shift lever towards me as usual, then try to move it down
into Reverse, and it just does NOT want to budge!! It sort of alarmed
me when I had to pull on the lever so durned hard to get it to move.
And when it finally does move into gear, it just really jumps there.

Is there an adjustment I can make to get rid of this issue? Oh yeah,
my car is a 1987 LeBaron Town & Country wagon, for the record.
Thanks again for any help that may be forthcoming.. I've worked on my
own cars all my life, but without certain documentation, some things
still puzzle me. And documentation on this car seems to be scarce..

Lee

 

Yes, don't park on an incline. What is happening is that you are putting
the transmission in park and allowing the car to roll back until the parking
pawl halts it. That puts weight on the parking pawl making it difficult to
remove the car from park.

Try setting the emergency brake before you put the car in park, as long as
you don't have as much tension the car should go out of park more easily,

 

You're failing to set the parking brake BEFORE shifting into Park, and/or
your parking brake is out of adjustment. The correct procedure for parking
the car is:

Stop the car with the regular brake, and KEEP YOUR FOOT ON IT
Apply the parking brake firmly
THEN shift to park.

When it comes time to move the car, shift out of Park BEFORE releasing the
parking brake.

 

I'll agree 100% with Dan'l on this one. The transmission in that car
is fussier than most about being parked "under load". If parked on any
kind of incline USE THE PARKING BRAKE, and use it properly.